THREE MUSLIM SAGES

Avicenna - Suhrauiardi - Ibn ~A rabi

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cam bridge, Massachusetts

1 964

II

Suhrawardi and the Illuminationists

THE BACKGROUND BEFORE SURRA w ARDi

PERIPATETIC philosophy, which had reached the zenith of its perfection with Avicenna and which was propagated after him by SOme of his able students and disciples, among them Bahmanyar and Abu-l-'Abbas al-Lukari, had been criticized from its inception by some of the jurists, as well as by the Sufis who opposed the tendency of rationalism inherent in Aristotelian philosophy. In the 4th/11th century a new foe joined the rank of the opposition and became in fact the arch enemy of the Peripatetics, The new adversary was Ash'arite theology, or Kaliim, which was first fonnulated by Abu1- Hasan al-Ash'ari and later expounded by such men as Abu Bakr al-Baqilani during the 4th/11th and 5th/12th centuries and which gradually began to gain support in Sunni circles.'

During the 4th/11th century, however, the political power of the Abbasid caliphate was rather limited, and the local princes, many of whom were Shi'ah and had a more favorable view toward what the Muslims call the intellectual sciences (al-'ulfl1n al-'aqliyah), as opposed to the transmitted sciences (al- 'ulUm al-naqliyah) derived from the sources of the revelation, ruled over much of the Muslim world." Therefore, the intellectual sciences, which included philosophy, continued to flourish to the extent that the 4th/11th and 5th/12th centuries may be considered as their "golden age." But gradually the political situation altered: in the 5th/12th

SUHRA W ARDt . 53

century the Seljuqs, who were the champions of Sunnism and the supporters of the Abbasid caliphate, succeeded in reuniting the Muslim lands of Western Asia and in establishing a strong central government, politically under the Seljuq sultans and religiously under the aegus of the caliphate in Baghdad. 3

It was at this moment that the school of Ash'arite theology began to be supported by official circles and centers of learning established to teach its tenets and spread its doctrines, And so the ground was prepared for the celebrated attack, of, al-Chazzall against the philosophers. AI-Ghazzali was a JU,nst and the~logian who understood philosophy well and havmg at one point fallen into religiOUS doubt had turned to Sufism for the cure of his spiritual illness and therein had found certainty and ultimate salvation! Consequently, with all the necessary gifts o~ knowledge, eloquence, and experience he set about breakmg the power of rationalism within Islamic society. ~o thi~ en,d he first summarized the philosophy of the Peripatetics III his A-taqii$id al-fiilasifah (The Purposes of the Philosophers) which is one of the best summaries of Muslim Peripatetic philosophy," and then went on to attack those tenets of the philosophers which were contrary to the teachings of the Islamic revelation in the well-known Tahitfut al-faliisifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) ,6

~ut i~ ~ust ~e added that the attack of al-Chazzall upon rationalistic philosophy was more in his capacity as a Sufi than as an Ash'arite theologian, because in his writings as, for example, al-Munqidh min al-dolal. (Our Deliverance from Error), although he cons iders the view of the theologians to be more in conformity with the tenets of Islam than that of the philosophers, it is Sufism which he believes to possess the only means to attain certainty and ultimate beatitude." In fact t~e impo~~ance of al-Chazzalt in Islamic history is not only III curtailing the power of the rationalists but also

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THREE MUSLIM SAGES

in making Sufism acceptable and respected in the eyes of the jurists and theologians so that eventually its teachings were taught openly even in the religious schools (madrasas). And even if an Ibn Taimiyah and an Ibn [awzi did appear from time to time to attack Sufism, theirs were more or less lonely voices which did not succeed in diminishing the _ r_:speet of the religious community for the Sufis. Al-Chazzali s writings, in fact, represent in a sense Islamic esotericism exteriorized in order to be able to protect its inner life in the cadre of exotericism.

With the advent of al-Chazzali, Peripatetic philosophy began to wane in the eastern lands of Islam and ~ourneyed westward to Andalusia where a series of famous philosophers - Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Tufail and Ibn Rushd - cultivated it for a century; and Ibn Rushd, the great champion of pure Aristotelian philosophy in Islam and the commentator par excellence of the writings of the Stagirite in the medieval period, attempted to retaliate against charges of a.l-Ghazzali in his Tahiifut al-tahaiut: But his defense had little effect in the Muslim world and it was primarily in the West that he was heard. Indeed a school called "Latin Averroism" came into being which purported to follow his teachings and apply them to a new setting in the C~ri~tian world ', Thus, almost at the same time that Aristotelianism was bemg rejected as a completely rationalistic system in the Islamic world, it began to be known in the West through translations of the works of the Eastern Peripatetics such as Avicenna and al-Farabi, as well as those of the Andalusians,

especially Averroes. .

Indeed, the parting of the ways between the two sister civilizations of Christianity and Islam after the 7th/14th century can be explained to a large extent in te~s of the role that this rationalistic philosophy was to have m the two civilizations. In the East, through the attacks of al-Chazzalt and others like Fakhr al-Din al-Hazi," the power of rational-

SUHRAWARDI

• 55

ism was curtailed, preparing the ground for the spread of the Illuminationist doctrines of Suhrawardi and the gnosis of the school of Ibn 'Arabi. In the West, however, the advent of Aristotelian rationalism had no small part to play in the destruction of the earlier Augustinian Platonism based on illumination and ultimately in bringing about, as a reaction, the secularized form of rationalism and naturalism which in the Renaissance destroyed the castle of medieval scholasticism itself.

SUHRAWARDi's LIFE AND WORKS

The sage whose doctrines came to a large extent to replace, especially in Persia, that Peripatetic philos?~hy whi~h al-Chazzali had criticized so severely was Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash ibn Amirak al-Suhrawardi, sometimes called al-Maqtiil, that is, "he who was killed." Generally, however, he is known as Shaikh al-ishraq, the master of illumination, especially by those who have kept his school alive to the present day." He did not have the honor of being translated into Latin in the medieval period and so has remained nearly unknown in the Western world until recent times when a few scholars - among them, Henry Corbinbegan to devote a series of important studies to him and undertook to publish and translate his works. to Yet even now Suhrawardi remains nearly unknown outside of his homeland, as can be seen by the fact that the great majorit~ of works On the history of Muslim philosophy continue to view Averroes, or at best Ibn Khaldiin, as the terminal paint in the intellectual history of Islam, ignoring completely the school of Ishriiq and aU the later Illuminationists, or Ishriiqis, that followed Suhrawardi, Moreover, this mistake is repeated by most modern Arab, Pakistani, and Indian scholars, many of whom rely primarily on works of modern orientalists for their knowledge of the history of Islamic philosophy and

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Revi.;'ta del I nsiituio Egypcia de Estudios lsldmicos, 1: 36-57 (1953), and M. T. D'Alverny, "Notes sur les traductions medievales d'Avicenne," Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Litteraire du Moyen Age, 27:337-358 (1952). In a footnote on p. 340 of this article, M. T. D'Alverny, who is the foremost authority on this subject and has been preparing for some time a complete edition of Avicenna's works in Latin, has given the name of other works of her own dealing with this subject, as well as articles by H. Bedoret, S. Pines, and M. Alonso.

For a general study of the translation of Arabic texts into Latin, the most authoritative work is still that of M, Steinschneider, Die europiiischen Obersetzungen aus der Arahischen bis Mitte der 17. lahrhundetts (Graz, 1956); see also R. Walzer: "Arabic Transmission of Greek Thought to Medieval Europe," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 29: 160-183 (1945-1946).

. It ~ quit.e ~fgnific~nt t~ note, h,~wever, that the writings of Avicenna III which his esotenc philosophy was expounded, such as the Isharat and Mantiq al-mashriqlyin, were not for the most part translated into Latin, thereby setting the stage for the difference which soon appeared between Eastern and Western interpretations of his philosophy.

96. This treatise was discovered and published by M. T. D'Alverny as "Les Peregrinations de l'ame dans l'uutre monde d'apres un anonyme de la fin du XII siecle," Archives d'IJist. Doct, et Lift. du Moyen Age, 15-17: 239-299 (1940-1942).

97. See R. de Vaux, Notes et texies sur Lacicennistne latin (Paris, 1934). The term "Latin Avicennianism" has not been as widely accepted as "Latin Averroism," coined by P. Mandonet in connection with his studies on Siger de Brabant, although even this term has been challenged by such an authority as F. van Steenberghen in his article "Siger of Brabant," Modem Schoalman, 29: 11-27 (1951). As for Avicenna, many authorities like E. Gilson feel that there was not a school well-enough defined and closely enough associated with his doctrines to deserve being named after him.

For the influence of Avicenna in the Latin world, and schools connected with him, see E. Gilson: "Graeco-Arab Influences" in lIisto-ry of Chri.;·tian Philosophy in the Middle Ages, pt. 6, chap. I~ "Les Sources greco·arabes de l'augustinisme avicennisant," Archives d'Hist. Doct. et Litt. du M eyen Age, 4: 5-149 (1929); "Pourquoi saint Thomas a critique saint Augustin," ibid., 1:1-127 (1926); Avicenne et le point de depart de Duns Scotus. See also K. Foster, D.P., "Avicennu and Western Thought in the 13th Century," in Wickens, ed., Avicenna ... ; and Corbin, Avicenna ... , pp. l02ff.

98. Christian doctors were usually more sympathetic to him than to Averroes, as can be seen by the much milder treatment that he receives in the anonymous De Esroribus Philasophorllm.

99. For, as Gilson has put it so aptly, "noetics is only a particular

NOTES TO CHAPTER II

. 147

c~s~ of cosmology" ("Pourquoi saint Thomas a critique saint Augustill, p.52).

100. P: Duhem, in his monumental study Le Systeme du mande (IV, 317££), discusses ho~ closely ~e astronomical revolution already presupposed a change III the spiritual and theological attitude vis-a-vis the cosmos and already implied its "desacralization."

10~. Wi~h r~~erence to Avicenna's cosmology and a ngelol ogy , Corbin wntes: But the whole of cosmology was bound up with angelology. To reject the latter was to shake the foundations of the former. No:"" this was.precisely what perfectly served the interests of t?e Copernican revolution: so that we witness an alliance hetween Chrishan theology and positive science to the end of annihilutiug the prerogatives of the Angel and of the world of the Angel in the demiurgy of the cosmo~. After that, the angelic world will no longer be necessary by. metaphy.slcal necessity; it will he a sort of luxury in the Creation; its existence w.ill be more or less probable." Avicenna ... ,pp. 101-102.

102. We have dealt fully with this question in our study of Avioenna's cosmology in Introduction . . . See also H. A. R. Gibb's preface to that book.

103. Many stories about Avicenna are told in Persia Central Asia and the Arab world in a folk language, and he definitely has found a tace i~ the conscio~sness of even the common people as a folk hero w ose science and Wisdom dominated over the powers of Nature.

CHAPTER II: SUHRAwARni AND THE ILLUMINATIONISTS

I: Concerning the doctrines and influence of this school see the baSIC work, L. Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction Ii la theologie musulmane ~Paris, 1948), and the monumental study of H. A. Wolfson, The PhIlosophy of the Kaliim, which is to be published by the Harvard University Press.

2. Regarding the traditional division of the sciences into the intellectual and transmitted, see Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, trans. F. Rosenthal, vols. II-III (New York, 1958), chap. vi.

3. For the history of thiSjeriod, see T. W. Arnold, The Caliphate (Oxf?rd, 1924), W. Barthol , Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion (London, 1928). M. T. Houtsma, Becueii de textes retalifs d Thistoite des Sel;oucides (Lelden, .1886-92), voIs. I-IV; G. Le Strange, The Lands of !he East~m .Callphate (Cambridge, 1930); and J. Sauvaget, Introduc.tlOn Ii rh~tOlre de rOrient musulman (Paris, 1943). As for the .par~1Cular slglllficance of Shi'ah-Sunni political domination in the culbvaho~ of the arts and sciences see the prologue to S. H. Nasr, Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines.

4. Numerous studies have been devoted to al-Ghazzali in European languages so that he is much better known than most of the other

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Muslim sages, and for this reason it was decide? not to .devote a chapter to him in the present volume. Although III some Circles too much use is made of al-Chazzali as a criterion for the orthodoxy of other Sufis, there is no doubt that he is one of the most signiflcant figures in Islam, having been placed by the hand of destiny at a decisive moment in Islamic history when the influence of rationalism was to be curtailed and the ground prepared for the sapiental doctrines of Suhrawardi and Ibn 'Arabi.

Regarding the life, doctrines, and influence of al-Gha~zali, s.ee. M.

Asin Palacios, La Espiritualulad. de Algazel Ij su sentido cristiano (Madrid-Granada, 1934-1941); Carra de Va ux, Cazali (Paris, 1902); A. J. Wensinck, La Pensee de Ghazzali (Paris, 1940); and F. [ubre, La Notion de certitude selon Ghaziili dans ses origines psychologiques et historiques (Paris, 1959).

5. It was because of the translation of this work into Latin that al-Chazzali - the Latin Algazel- was identified by St. Thomas and other scholastics as a Pcripatetic philosopher. The MaqiiJul is actually an almost word-for-word translation of Avicenna's Diinishniimah-i 'aUi'i from Persian into Arabic. But whereas the original is difficult to underst~nd, this bein~ the fi~st attempt to W:i!e.Aristotelia~lhilo~oph!, in Persian, the Arabic version of al-Chazzali IS most luci , which IS perhaps the basic reason for its great popularity.

6. Al-Chazzali criticizes the philosophers on many points, of which he considers three as cardinal, these being their denial of creation ex nihilo, Cod's knowledge of particulars, and bodily resurrection, all of which are stated clearly in the Quran. See W. Montgomery-Watt, The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazzali (London, 1953), pp. 37ft.

7. The Ash'arltes, however, benefited from the attack of al-Chazzali against the philosophers so that to a certain extent his criticism of them can be considered as a victory for the theologians as well, especially since political and social conditions of the time favored the spread of their teachings.

8. This great theologian, who was one of the most learned men of his time, must be considered after al-Chazzall as the most severe critic of the philosophers. He compiled the monumental Quranic commentary, Tafsir al-kabir, as well as the Jiimt al-'uWm, on all the sciences of his day of which he had a vast knowledge. His importance in philosophy lies in his detailed analysis and criticism of the Ishiir~t of.Avicenna, to which Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tflsi was to reply III his Shar1,l al-ishiiriit a generation later.

Regarding Imam Fakhr, as he is called in Persia, see M. Harten, Die spekulauoe und positive Theologie in Islam nach Razi und Tusi (Leipzig, 1912); P. Kraus, "The Controversies of Fakhr"al-Din Riz~" Islamic Culture, 12:131-153 (1938); and S. H. Nasr, Fakhr al-Dm

NOTES TO CHAPTER II

. 149

al-Razi," in History of Muslim Philosophy, ed. M. M. Sharif (Wiesbaden, 1963).

9. Shaikh al-ishraq should not be confused with the series of Sufi masters bearing the name of Suhrawardi, especially Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi, the famous $iifi master for whom the founder of the school of Illumination, or Ishriiq, has been mistaken even by some Muslim historians.

Concerning the four famous Suhrawardis, see H. Ritter "Philologika, IX: Die vier Suhrawardi, ihre Werke in Starnbuler Handschriften," Der I slam, 24: 270-286 (1937) and 25: 35-86 (1938).

10. Of the writings of H. Corbin on Suhruwardi, mention should be made especially of the translation of some of Suhrawardi's shorter works into French; and also Suhrauiardi d' Alep, [ondateur de la doctrine illuminatil:e (ishriiqi) (Paris, 1939); Les AI otifs zOToastriens dans la philosophie de Suhrawardi (Tehran, 1946); and Corbin's two prolegomena to Suhrawardi, Opera Atetaphysica et Mystica, vol. I (Istanbul, 1945); vol. II (Tehran, 1952). Volume I of these two volumes includes the Metaphysics of three of Suhrawardl's large treatises, the TalwibJit, Muqiiwamiit, and Mutiirahiit, and Volume II the complete text of his masterpiece Hikmat al-ishraq and two short treatises, Fi i'tiqiid aHlUkamii' and Q#~ut al-ghurbat al-gharbiyah. Volume III, which will be published l'ointly by Corbin and the present author, will include the complete co lection of the Persian works the first part of which is planned for publication during 1963.

11. More recently, some attention has been paid by Arah scholars to Suhrawardi, mostly as a result of the spread of the fruits of Corbin's research in the Arab countries. This is exemplified by Sami al-Kiyali's al-Suhrawardi (Cairo, 1955), Ahmad Amin's 1;layy ibn Yaq¢n Ii ibn Sinii wa ibrt Tufai[ wa'I·Suhrawardi (Cairo, 1952) and sections devoted to Suhrawardi in Fi'l-falsafat al-islamiyah by Ibrahim Madkour (Cairo, 1947) and Shakh~yat qilqah fi'I-isliim of 'Abd al-Rahman Badawi (Cairo, 1946), which contains an Arabic translation of Corbin's monograph, Suhrawardi d' Alep, mentioned above.

In Persia his 1;likmat al-ishraq with various commentaries and glosses was lithographed during the last century and has always been a basic text in the madrasas, and several of his Persian treatises have been published by Mahdi Bayanf and Muhsin Saba. There is also the work of 'Ali Akbar Danasirisht entitled Afkdr-i Suhrawardi wa Mullii $adra (Tehran, 1316), which treats of some of Suhrawardi's basic ideas. See also S. H. Nasr, "Suhrawardi," History of Muslim philosophy, which treats much of the material discussed in this essay.

Before Corbin, the most important works written in European languages on this subject, some of which contain faulty interpretations by otherwise competent scholars, include Carra de Vaux, "La Philosophie illuminative d'apres Suhrawardi maqtoul," Journal Asiatique,